It's Like You're My Brother
by daylighters
Summary: In which Maya Hart realizes something entirely different, and completely unexpected, about Lucas Friar. And herself, too. [rucas; markle; lucaya friendship]


I glanced around Topanga's, the somewhat new little cafe Riley's mom owned. Riley and Lucas were sitting on the couch besides the one Farkle and I were sitting on, talking quietly. I paid little to no attention to their conversation. I had been trying harder and harder to block out anything about Riley and Lucas these days, after my discovery when I was acting as Riles.

That discovery being that Riley only sees Lucas, who is completely smitten with her, as a brother. Or something else totally platonic like that.

The worst part of all was that she hadn't even realized it yet. There was no right way to tell her, and it wasn't like she would believe me if I did. She was one hundred percent positive she had feelings for her cowboy, and anything I said or even implied would only cause conflict between us. Neither of us wanted to go through that again. Her Uncle Eric couldn't just come running to help again, considering the fact that he was a senator now.

"Maya, you're pretty quiet today," Farkle said, startling me. I had almost forgotten that he was even here, I was so caught up in my thoughts. "Is everything okay?"

His words from last year rang in my head. I know you, Maya. You're not a puzzle to me at all, he had said.

If that was true, shouldn't he be able to tell what was going on with me?

I nodded after a few seconds, pointedly focusing on the floor. It was easier to lie to him when I wasn't looking him in the eyes. I hoped he hadn't caught onto that yet. "Yeah, of course. I'm just a little worn out from school." There, that was believable. Even Riley had been complaining about how difficult our workload was getting these days. You know it has to be bad if bright and positive Riley Matthews is actually complaining.

He didn't say anything after that. I felt his eyes on me, but I didn't bother to look up. I knew that it would be inevitable that he would realize something really was wrong if he got a good look at me. That was the last thing that I needed right now.

"Hey, Maya, Lucas."

I reluctantly snapped my head up, only because I recognized the voice. It was Sarah, one of my classmates from history. By now I knew that it was never going to be a good thing if anyone paired my name up with Ranger Rick's like that. Which might just explain the sudden churning in my stomach.

"Sarah, right?" Lucas asked, finally tearing his gaze away from Riley. It was admittedly depressing to see how much he liked her, knowing that her feelings for him were simply platonic. Even though I didn't like Lucas as more than a friend (despite what our peers seemed to think), I still cared about him.

She nodded quickly, smiling now. "Yes, that's me. I was wondering, why did you guys seem so shocked when you were voted Best Couple? Your feelings for each other are painfully obvious, so I don't quite understand why you were so surprised."

Riley froze. She scooted away from Lucas (somewhat instinctively, I guessed), already fiddling with her fingers nervously. I hesitantly looked away from her, focusing on Sarah From History. The girl who pretty much seemed intent on ruining my life.

"Maybe because you're all crazy and we don't have feelings for each other?" I asked her, my voice sickly sweet. I caught Farkle smiling from my peripheral vision, and couldn't help but smile, as well. It was encouraging that at least one person seemed to appreciate my quick comebacks. It took years and years of fighting with people to get so talented at this.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "No, that isn't it. Don't you see? How you tease each other, all those cute little pet names you have for him, how you always get up in his face ..." she trailed off, sighing dreamily.

Riley scooted farther away from Lucas then, linking her hands together tightly. She was already on the edge of the seat. If she were to scoot away anymore, she was going to slip right off.

"With all due respect, Sarah, Maya and I are just friends," Lucas insisted, fleetingly glancing at Riley before locking his eyes on Sarah again. It was pretty clear that he was worried about Riles, which increased my stomach churning feeling by about a thousand. It was getting more and more difficult to not just figure out some way to make Riley like him for real. They deserved to be together, her feelings being platonic didn't make any sense.

Sarah grinned sweetly. "With all due respect, Lucas, that isn't how it is and let's be honest, everybody here knows it. Your cutesy love-hate relationship and you two constantly denying any romantic feelings for each other only cause you two to have even more Lucaya shippers!"

"Lucaya?" Lucas echoed questioningly.

My eyebrows raised. "Shippers?" I said somewhat mockingly.

She smiled at us like we were a couple of toddlers. Well. "Yes, Lucaya, and yes, shippers. Lucaya is you guys' relationship name. Get it? Luc ... aya. And see, shippers are loving, devoted fans who root for two people to finally grow up and just get together already. You have lots and lots of those."

Riley stood up then, brushing off her pants absentmindedly. "I need to go get some air," she muttered, brushing past all of us and heading outside.

Lucas shot up right away, but Sarah stepped in front of him, blocking the exit. "Sorry about that, but what I'm saying is true. You two would be perfect together. It's really rather disappointing neither of you have come to that realization yet. Or maybe you have and you're just really skilled at hiding it. Who knows? People are great at masking how they feel."

I couldn't resist rolling my eyes at her then. "It doesn't bother me that you have an opinion and all, because I could not honestly care less about what anyone thinks. It isn't going to change anything, or push Lucas and I together. What bothers me is that you think I would actually pine after my best friend's crush. It annoys me that you seem to think I would ever go out with Ranger Rick, even though you know Riley likes him. She's my sunlight, even if we lived in some unrealistic, alternate universe where I could imagine having romantic feelings for Lucas, I would never turn her from the ray of sunlight she is to a downpour of rain." I thought I saw Farkle smile a little wider then, but I couldn't bring myself to tear my gaze away from Sarah to check.

She stared at me for a long moment. "...What if Riley didn't like Lucas? Then what?"

"That wouldn't change a single thing. Lucas and I are friends, and that is all we will ever be. Even in some creepy, unnatural alternate world, that could never be any different. And by the way, everyone seemingly dismissing Riley's feelings is really starting to get on my nerves."

"A couple of weeks ago, while you guys were all acting crazy and you were pretending to be Riley, you implied that she only saw him as a brother." Crap. I had been hoping no one had caught onto that. "Maybe that's why we don't see anything wrong with you and Lucas being together. She doesn't like him as more than a friend, does she?"

Farkle and Lucas both stayed completely silent, their eyes locked on me. Just like Sarah. I cleared my throat awkwardly, picking at a loose fingernail. I was nervous, there was no reason for me to lie about that.

Sarah eventually sat down besides me on the sofa, her eyebrows raised. "Maya. Does Riley like Lucas or not?"

The only coherent thought that came to mind was that it was not any of my business if she liked him or not. They were her feelings, after all. "Shouldn't you be asking Riley that?"

"You were Riley. For a little while, at least. You realized that she only sees Lucas as a brother, so I honestly don't understand why you're so upset with us."

"Technically, you guys did say you were rooting for Maya and Lucas long before Maya ever pretended to be Riley," Farkle pointed out, finally speaking up. "That's what made Riley turn into a total goth, remember?"

Sarah shrugged. "We have the right to have an opinion."

"Your opinion," Lucas paused before continuing, "hurt her. Badly. There was no other reason for her to totally reinvent herself. Not only that, it was like it wasn't even a big deal. It's okay to have your own thoughts and opinions, of course. But the part that was not okay was you and your friends disregarding how Riley must have felt. You pretty much acted like her feelings were meaningless."

"I wouldn't say we acted like they were meaningless. We just had bigger things on our minds."

I shook my head quickly. "Her feelings should matter just as much as whether or not Lucas and I end up together. Which, by the way, is never going to happen. I can't even imagine dating Ranger Rick. Honestly, that would be so weird, it's bad enough that I already feel like he's my brother, for crying out loud."

Wait.

Wait a minute.

I jerked my head towards Lucas, whose eyebrows rose expectantly. "It's like ... it's like your my brother," I mumbled, my voice barely audible. "That's why I assumed Riley thought of you as a brother. Even when I'm pretending to be her, I can't see you as anything more than-"

"A brother," Riley finished for me. I glanced towards her, biting my bottom lip. She was hovering in the doorway, a small smile lighting up her features. "It took you long enough."

"You knew? The entire time?!"

She nodded, laughing quietly. She stepped back inside, standing right next to where Lucas was sitting. "Of course I knew. You're my best friend, Maya. I can catch onto things involving you pretty quickly. It isn't like you were exactly subtle with how you thought I saw him as a brother. Almost everyone in the classroom caught on to what you were implying, except ..."

"Lucas," Farkle and I said in unison. I snickered, speaking alone this time. "I'm not even surprised. But wait. Why didn't you tell me?"

She smiled a little wider now. "You never would have believed me, would you? I had to let you figure it out on your own. There was no other way this whole situation would have been cleared up."

"So, wait. You don't see Lucas as a brother?" Sarah pressed, talking for the first time since Riley came back. Farkle, Lucas and I all looked towards Riley now, anticipating her answer.

She shook her head, hesitantly sitting next to Lucas again. "Of course not. I had to let Maya think I did so she could realize what was really going on. Which, sure, was a bit awkward, but it was worth it."

Sarah glimpsed at me now, her lips pressed together firmly. "You see him as a brother?"

Me, seeing Lucas Friar as my brother. It was going to take some time to comprehend, but it made more sense than Riley seeing Lucas as a brother. "Yep."

Next, she glanced over at Lucas. "And you have feelings for Riley?" He nodded without hesitation and Sarah's shoulders slumped. She stood up then, heaving a soft sigh. "All right, then. I apologize if I came off as rude of anything, I really didn't mean too. I just get extremely invested in my ships."

Riley grinned. "I get it. I've been rooting for a couple people, too, actually," she admitted, reflexively looking towards Farkle and I. My eyebrows furrowed together tightly, whereas Farkle just sat up straighter.

Sarah fleetingly glanced over at me and Farkle before nodding quickly. "You know, they would make a great couple."

"I think we would, too," Farkle said softly, so quietly that I barely heard what he was saying.

It was kind of terrifying that I agreed with them.

. . .

 **A/N: Okay, so there we have it. My first GMW one shot on this website. So, in my weak defense, if it sucks it is probably because it is two in the morning here and I am half asleep haha ... ha. But it came to me while I was overthinking life, and here we are. It's unedited, by the way. Yikes.**

 **(I don't own Girl Meets World. Thank you for reading!)**


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